“Sorry, what?” asked the guard.

“I want to see what’s through that big metal door. I want to go there.”

“Kid, I can’t take you there.”

As soon as he said those words, he collapsed to the ground.

“My- my legs!” he shouted.

He was paralyzed from the waist down, but only for about thirty seconds, because the deal wasn’t big enough to warrant a penalty greater than that. He didn’t know that though, so Elise pressed her advantage. As the other guard pointed his spear at her, she turned to him with a smile.

“If you attack me, he’ll never walk again.”

That made him hesitate.

“I don’t want to hurt either of you,” she said. “So why don’t we put down the weapons? If you don’t attack me, I won’t attack you. And if you do attack me… well, you’ll regret it.”

The guard still on his feet looked uncertain, while the paralyzed guard tried and failed to pull himself up.

“Who are you?” asked the guard.

“I’ll tell you if you agree that we can talk this out peacefully. No violence. I’ll even cure him.”

She nodded at the paralyzed guard.

“I agree!” said the downed guard.

The other one hesitated for a moment before he too nodded in agreement. Elise heard the ding of a System notification, but dismissed it without checking it. The paralyzed guard was cured, and swiftly got to his feet, and both leveled their spears at her. Neither of their curses activated, but Elise was still mildly annoyed at the open hostility.

“I thought we agreed to talk it out peacefully,” she said.

“This is for our own defense,” said the guard.

“Do you really think those spears are enough to stop me?”

They both hesitated, then one by one, lowered their spears.

“Who are you and what do you want?” asked one.

“I can’t tell you my full identity,” she started. “But I’ve been sent by the king. I’m investigating this area of the slums and the secret that you are so poorly hiding, and to finish that investigation, I need to get through that vault door.”

She needed to tell them the truth, since it was part of the deal she made, but the partial, technical truth suited that just fine.

“The king?” asked the first guard. “King Sebastien?”

Elise blinked once in confusion before she remembered that Oberon wasn’t actually known as Oberon to the people. She had only ever heard his public name once in passing, so she almost didn’t recognize it.

“Yes,” she said. “If you cooperate, you will not be held responsible for whatever I find.”

The second guard narrowed his eyes.

“How do we know you’re really sent by the king?”

That is a great question, thought Elise.

She didn’t have any badges or anything she could show them. That would be something good to have on her, in case she needed to pretend to be an agent of the king again. For now though, she’d just have to bluff her way through.

“Does that matter?” she said with a smile. “You’re not really in a position to be skeptical now, are you?”

They glanced at each other, and the formerly paralyzed guard grimaced. Casually paralyzing him, then healing him left a pretty strong impression. Elise had no idea what kind of class or level would allow her to do that without {Fey Bargaining}, but it was probably something beyond what they could handle. And if they didn’t understand how {Fey Bargaining} worked, they could only assume that she had such a class.

“We don’t know anything,” said the second guard. “We’re just guards.”

With that, the deal for them to cooperate was confirmed, and she heard yet another System notification. However, that statement didn’t sound right, and she hadn’t specified that they needed to tell the truth, so it was suspect.

“You expect me to believe that? When I said ‘cooperate’ I meant that you need to tell the truth. Or else.”

“We don’t know anything about what’s in the vault,” he clarified, sealing the updated deal as well. “We don’t have access to it, and we’re not allowed in the vicinity when anyone else enters it.”

“Then what do you know about this organization?”

“Don’t know much about that either. I just know that they’re powerful. Lots of money. I only joined up because they promised me a non-criminal Class, which I have now, but the pay is actually pretty damn good too, so I haven’t left.”

“Same for me,” said the first guard. “I know we gotta be involved in something illegal, but whatever it is, it’s got nothing to do with us. We just guard the vault and the kids.”

“Boss is great though,” said the second. “Nice guy. Pays well. Good hours. Loves kids, and not in a weird way. I can’t imagine he’s involved in anything too bad. If he is… Well, honestly, all the good he’s doing probably outweighs it.”

“Yeah,” agreed the first.

Elise frowned. After everything she had seen, she was half-considering just ending the investigation. She almost agreed with the guard’s assessment. Despite being in the middle of the slums, all the employees had ordinary classes, as opposed to the Blood Syndicate’s guards who all had “Syndicate” in their class names. The children seemed happy and healthy, and she had seen no evidence of foul play regarding them. Maybe the vault was literally just that: a vault. It was full of gold and valuables.

But that didn’t explain the mana formations leading into it. If it was just a storage vault, why did it need to be connected to the orphanage? She lamented the fact that she was on such a short time limit. She would have loved to have a longer infiltration and spend more time actually investigating the organization before making any big moves like this. But, what was done was done.

“I will take your testimony into consideration when I decide what to do about what I find inside,” she said. “But first, I need to get inside. How do I do that?”

“Only the Boss has the key,” said the second guard.

“And where is the Boss?”

“Away on a business trip. I think he gets back next week.”

Elise couldn’t help but sigh. At this point, her cover was well past blown. She could probably make the guards forget this conversation, but getting everyone in the orphanage to forget her existence was a much taller order. With her cover blown, it would be harder to investigate, and if she decided against brute force, she would still have to wait a week to see the Boss and somehow use him to get into the vault. She wanted to get it over with right then.

As she was considering how she might be able to force her way into the vault though, a sound suddenly came down the tunnel that made all three of their heads turn. It grew louder and clearer, and soon, Elise could make out a woman’s voice humming. Then, she heard the footsteps, which at first sounded erratic, but Elise eventually recognized a rhythm in them. Elise and the two guards both poked their heads around the corner to see a filthy homeless woman dancing her way down the tunnel, eyes closed, humming the whole time.

“Who’s that?” asked Elise.

“Maggie,” said the first guard. “Local Euphoria addict.”

“Euphoria?”

“Hallucinogenic drug.”

“Ah.”

The woman danced closer and closer, and once she was within range, Elise used {Inspect}.

[ ???, lvl ??? ]

Dammit! Every time!

As soon as she used the skill, the woman stopped dancing and looked at Elise. The other woman’s eyes widened and she broke out into a smile and rushed forward.

“Ohmygosh!” she said.

Elise tried to take a step back, but before she could react, she was wrapped up in a tight, smelly embrace.

“You are so adorable!”

Elise was tempted to transform into her rabbit form to escape the hug, but aside from the smell, it was actually pretty comfortable, and she didn’t sense any hostility. It was certainly strange, but thus far, she had actually had relatively good experiences with everyone who identified as ???, so she might as well give this strange woman a chance.

“Maggie, that’s not-” started the second guard

“Quiet!” sent Elise with {Whisper}.

“Wow, you’re so much cuter in person!” said Maggie, letting Elise go from her embrace and holding her up in the air.

“In person?” thought Elise.

She pulled Elise in close again and started whispering in her ear. “Why don’t you work a little fey magic to make those two forget about us. I’ll take you where you want to go!”

“You will?” asked Elise.

“You want to get into the vault, right? Coincidentally, I also want to get into the vault. Let’s help each other out.”

“So, if I make the guards forget about us, you’ll get me into the vault?” asked Elise.

“Correct.”

“And you’re not tricking me, or planning to betray me after we get in, nor is this a trap.”

“Also correct.”

“Assuming all that is true, then I agree,” said Elise, activating {Fey Bargaining}

“Yay!” said Maggie, which was enough to seal the deal. “Woah, that feels funny.”

“We can’t let you past,” said the first guard. Their whispers hadn’t actually been very quiet.

“Do your thing, Bunny!” said Maggie, dropping Elise down in front of the guards.

The guards didn’t reach for their weapons, but they did stare at Elise with intense suspicion.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” said Elise. “You guys are going to forget that Maggie and I were ever here. In exchange, you won’t get in trouble for anything that happens afterward. I will also strongly consider doing nothing about your Boss, as long as whatever’s in the vault isn’t too bad.”

“Oh, it’s not bad at all,” said Maggie. “It’s very good.”

The two guards hesitated, then nodded. She had thoroughly terrified them, and now seeing her thoroughly terrified by Maggie probably had them questioning their sanity. As much as they liked their boss, they were just guards. They didn’t want to get involved with this when it was so obviously above their pay grade

Before the chilling sensation was even gone, Elise was in the air again as Maggie picked her up and rushed down the tunnel. They were out of sight from the guards in just a few seconds, before the two of them recovered from the memory wipe, and once out of sight, Maggie slowed down, put Elise back down on the ground, and started doing her odd dance. Elise wanted to ask what it was, but she was worried their voices would carry down the tunnel, so she just followed quietly.

When they reached the vault, Maggie placed both hands on the handle, and started fiddling with the mana inside. It was clear that whatever she was doing was freeform mana manipulation, meaning that whatever Class or Species she had, it was quite rare. After about a minute, Elise heard metallic grinding as the door unlocked, and Maggie swung it open and walked inside. Elise followed behind and closed the door behind her.

The sight inside was not quite what Elise expected or hoped for. It was just a large room filled with planter boxes, and each planter box was filled to the brim with mushrooms. The mushrooms were tall and thin with small knobs on top. All the mana circuits that lead into the room ended in the mushroom planter boxes.

“My babies!” said Maggie.

She ran to the nearest planter box, grabbed a mushroom and popped it into her mouth. Almost immediately, Elise sensed some extreme positive emotions from her through {Sense Emotions}, and with that, she understood what was going on. These mushrooms were Euphoria. The orphanage was a front for drug production. And Elise had just helped an addict get inside.

Maggie laughed hysterically, dancing a different dance, then ran over to Elise to hug her again. This time, Elise used {Move} to get out of the way. Then, Maggie used a movement skill of her own to catch up anyway, and soon, Elise was dangling in the air again as Maggie spun her around in a frantic waltz. Elise tried to pull away for a few seconds longer, then gave up. It was futile. Maggie was too much stronger than her. Even {Suggest} had no effect because whatever the mushroom had done to her mind overcame it. Elise thought she might be able to beat it with {Forced Feeling}, but that would be temporary, and as Oberon explained, it was an attack. Maggie might not take too kindly to it.

So, she allowed herself to be manhandled like a toy doll for a few minutes until the intense euphoria faded from Maggie’s mind and she began to settle down.

“Wow!” said Maggie, her first words since eating the mushroom. “They really are better fresh!”

“Maggie,” said Elise. “Did you only want to get in here to eat the mushrooms?”

“Of course!” she said. “There’s not really anything else to do in here. Do you want to try one? They’re pretty tasty, actually.”

“No,” said Elise.

“Suit yourself,” said Maggie with a shrug.

She shifted Elise over to one arm, then reached for a second mushroom, but Elise put out a hand to stop her.

“Wait,” said Elise. “How did you know who I was?”

“I dreamed about you, of course,” she said. “You know how it is.”

“You dreamed about me?”

“I dream about you all the time,” said Maggie. “Once a week for the past five years.”

“Five years?”

I haven’t even been here for one yet.

“Five years,” she confirmed. “The bunny fey! I’ve wanted to meet you for so long! There was something…”

She trailed off and frowned.

“Something…”

For almost a full minute, she seemed frozen. Elise just watched and waited until the end of the minute when Maggie suddenly stood up straighter, then set Elise down. When Elise looked up at the other woman, her entire demeanor had changed. The loopy drug addict was gone, replaced by someone that reminded Elise of a soldier.

“Aetherborn,” she said. “How much do you know about yourself?”